The First Bride
by Cairo Sinclair
Summary: Everyone knows of Dracula's three brides, Verona, Aleera, and Marishka. But nobody knows about Dracula's first bride... Eleana. DraculaxOC.
1. Meeting

**The First Bride**

**A Van Helsing Fanfic**

**by**

**Cairo Sinclair**

Author's note: Takes place after the movie.

Disclaimer: I own Eleana, nothing more.

* * *

Van Helsing and Carl rode triumphantly into Rome. Leaving their horses in a stable nearby, they made their way to the Vatican church the Order's headquarters were under. Carl spotted the girl lying on the steps first. A black leather bag lay at her side

"Hello?" he asked, poking the girl. She looked about nineteen. Her eyes shot open and she sat up.

"Hello," she answered nervously. Then she looked at him intently. "Are you Van Helsing?"

"I am," Van Helsing said, standing to the side of the girl and offering her his hand. She took it and he pulled her to her feet. She slung the bag over her shoulder.

"I was told to find you. I have... information... that could be useful."

"Information about what?"

She glanced toward Carl. "I have information about how to defeat Dracula."

"Oh, we already defeated him," Carl said proudly. Van Helsing glanced at him. "Well, it was mostly Van Helsing who did the defeating. I just... helped," Carl corrected.

The girl smirked. "You may have killed him, but you did not _defeat_ him. But since you do not need my help, I will be going." She started down the steps. Carl looked at Van Helsing, confused.

"Aren't killing and defeating the same thing?" But he had already followed the girl.

Van Helsing caught up with the girl at the bottom of the stairs. "What do you mean, we haven't defeated him? He was killed by a werewolf, like he was supposed to be."

"I mean, until you have _defeated_ him, he will keep coming back. He always has, and he always will. No matter how many werewolves attack him, he will always return."

Van Helsing sighed. "But how do you defeat him?"

The girl blinked. "It's quite simple, really. You drive a stake through his heart."

"We tried that!" Carl explained.

"No, you didn't. Because-" she paused and pulled something out of her bag. It was a wooden chest, about a foot on each side, with elaborately carved skulls on it. "Because," she continued, "his heart is in here."

Van Helsing made a grab for the box. The girl swiftly pulled it out of his reach.

"I won't give it to you until you promise me something," she said.

"Anything," Van Helsing said, still trying to grab the chest.

"When you stab this heart, Dracula will become mortal for ten minutes." Van Helsing and Carl nodded eagerly. "I want nine of those ten minutes alone with him."

"Why?" Van Helsing was puzzled.

"You don't know who I am, do you?" she said, almost to herself. Then in a slightly louder voice, she added, "I want to see him as he was four hundred years ago, when he was human. When-" she broke off. She took a breath and continued. "When he was my lover."

Van Helsing and Carl stared at her.

"So that would make you..." Carl started working it out in his head.

"Four hundred and forty five years old," she filled in. "I am a vampire. I am Eleana, Dracula's _first _bride."

Van Helsing pulled out a stake, but she was too fast for him. She grabbed his wrist.

"Hear me out," she said. "I am willing to give you the heart on three conditions. Firstly, that you give me nine minutes alone with him when he is mortal. Secondly, that you not kill me. Thirdly, that you allow me to travel with you back to his castle."

"I'll grant your conditions, if you answer one question," Van Helsing agreed.

"Ask it," Eleana said.

"Why did you not die when I killed Dracula? The legends say that anything created by him would also die."

Eleana smiled. "He did not create me. I was created by an older vampire, one who still lives today, in England."

Carl had a question for the vampire. "If Dracula was your lover, why are you so eager to help us kill him?"

Eleana's answer was one abrupt word. "Revenge."


	2. Stories

**The First Bride**

**A Van Helsing Fanfic**

**by**

**Cairo Sinclair**

Author's note: Thank you all so much for reviewing, adding my story to various lists, etc.! It means so much to me to think that people actually like the stuff I come up with! You all are great!

Disclaimer: I still don't own Van Helsing. Which is good, because if I did I'd keep him all to myself.

* * *

Three figures rode out of Rome that night. Van Helsing at the head of the little group, Carl beside him, Eleana at the back, almost as an afterthought.

"Eleana," Van Helsing said without turning. "Why do you want revenge on Dracula?"

She laughed, a cold, bitter laugh. "It's a long story."

"We'll have time for it, on the ship."

"Then that is when you will hear it. Until then..." she trailed off.

The group rode in silence until they arrived at the docks. When Eleana had settled into her small cabin, there was a knock on the door. She opened it a crack. Van Helsing and Carl were standing there.

"The story?" Van Helsing asked. She pulled the door all the way open, inviting them in. They sat on her bed, looking like little boys awaiting a bedtime story.

"It starts with my sister Aminta. We looked alike, though she was two years older than me, still a lot younger than _he_ was." She didn't say his name, but they knew who she was talking about: Dracula. "My sister was the pretty one, the perfect one. My father was trying to marry her off to some wealthy nobleman. _He_ was a count, rich, interested in my sister, it was a match made in heaven." She chuckled. "My father got my sister an invitation to a masked ball in-"

"Budapest!" Carl interrupted. Eleana looked at him, startled.

"Yes, he hosts a masked ball there every year. His 'summer palace'." Van Helsing didn't miss the sarcasm.

"My sister, however, didn't want to go. She was in love with another man, I don't even remember his name anymore. We had a plan: I would go to the masquerade, pretend to be her. She would stay home and see her lover. I met him and... I fell in love." She smiled, remembering.  
"You said something about being his first bride," Van Helsing pointed out.

"Yes, I was. He married me, you see. A proper wedding, too. Then he was murdered on the last night of our honeymoon."

She stood up and walked to the tiny window, staring at the sea outside. "But he came back. I saw him. Three days after the funeral, I saw him at my window. I was... ecstatic. You'd be too, if someone you thought was dead wasn't. He told me what had happened to him. He told me he'd turn me too, if that was what I wanted. He gave me his heart that night, and I've had it since."

Eleana turned back from the window. "I told Aminta. How could I not? I was thrilled. She was jealous, she wanted to live forever too. That night, she locked me in the cellar and went to my room. She seduced my husband, convinced him to turn her. He took her away with him. I was heartbroken."

"But then shouldn't you want to kill her and not Dracula?" Carl wondered.

"I can't. She was killed by a so-called 'monster slayer' not five years later. He came back then, to see me. I asked him why he hadn't turned me, like he promised. He said he didn't want me to get hurt, and he left me again. So I went to England, I had heard there was another vampire there. Alexander, I think his name was. He turned me and I've been looking for someone to kill my ex-lover ever since."

"And you found me," Van Helsing stated.

"I heard you were the best of the best."

"You heard right."

* * *

Author's Postscript: Two chapters is a milestone for me, seeing as all my other stories were oneshots. On a completely unrelated note, catch the Phantom reference and win a prize!

'Til the next chapter,

Cairo Sinclair


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